Society paying the price for religious illiteracy

Education could calm culture war

6:43 AM,
Oct. 10, 2012

Written by

Charles C. Haynes

In Judge Joseph Sheeran's courtroom, religious literacy is seen as an antidote to intolerance and hate.

This past week, the Michigan judge gave Delane Bell two years' probation for attacking two men Bell thought were Muslims. But the judge conditioned the sentence on Bell's completing a 10-page paper on Hinduism, the actual faith of the assault victims.

This was Sheeran's second attempt to educate Bell about religions. At his plea hearing, Bell was ordered to write a paper on the cultural contributions of Islam, presumably to help him stop viewing all Muslims as terrorists. ...